I was about to say this.

I was at United before my current gig. On a 747 going from ORD-NRT, the belly freight would pay for the flight, plus one million dollars in profit. The passengers up top were just icing on the cake. That plane would make money even if there were zero passengers. Now you add in 18 FC seats at around $10,000 per and 60 BC seats at $4,000 a pop then 300+ EC seats…

I’d love to see real numbers on that. But bottom line, on those international widebody flights, the cargo they carry is way more important than the passengers.